The Happy Homemaker

grumperina's got the look down with her beautifully made apron, high heels and pearls.  but i've got the mad skillz (ha!).  this weekend, i made bread.  my mother would be proud (although probably skeptical--she's always amazed whenever i accomplish something domestic).

over the holidays  i decided to give the no-knead bread recipe a try.   my first two tries were mediocre at best.  my dough didn't rise sufficiently most likely because the temperature of my kitchen was less than 70 degrees (i solved this by putting the bowl of dough on top of the fridge -- you know heat rises) and also i kept removing the plastic wrap to watch.  i also may have put too much flour.  but the third time may have been a charm.

the experiment started friday night when i mixed all of the ingredients.

there's 3 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspon of instant yeast (the kind you use with bread makers) and 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt in there.  that's it.

here's what the dough looked like after adding water and doing a little stirring.  i covered the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough sit on my refridgerator for  .... 18 hours.

this is what the dough looked like saturday afternoon.

the dough was rolled into a ball, allowed to rise  between two kitchen towels for two hours again and then lightly brushed with cornmeal.

then the dough was thrown into a pre-heated dutch oven seam side up and baked for 30 minutes with the lid, and 15 minutes without the lid at 450 degrees.

ta-daa!  bread!

isn't it pretty?

this isn't wonder bread though.  it's crusty and chewy and it's quite possible that it should be lighter and i still haven't gotten it right.  but it is pretty good.  and it's easy as pie.  hell, it's even easier than pie.